20 arrested during UC Santa Cruz student strike

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — Campus police at UC Santa Cruz have arrested 20 participants of a teaching assistant strike for blocking an intersection at one of the campus's two entrances.

The graduate students represented by United Auto Workers say the University of California has been intimidating some of their 12,000 members statewide during a lengthy contract negotiation. Similar strikes were planned for Wednesday and Thursday at UC's Berkeley, Davis and San Diego campuses.

UC Santa Cruz spokesman Jim Burns says the 20 people arrested Wednesday were charged with misdemeanors including failure to disperse and blocking a university entrance. Police from UC San Francisco were on scene to assist.

Because of the strike, some classes had to be held off campus or cancelled.